Photo: Jim Forest
Jim Forest
Jim Forest
This January saw the death of peace activist Jim Forest. He might be most a remembered as a member of the Milwaukee 14, who slipped into Downtown Milwaukee’s draft board office, burned the draft records in a bonfire outside and waited to be arrested. Forest along with his companions were sentenced to two years in prison.
They planned their action at Casa Maria, the Milwaukee house of the Catholic Workers, a movement stressing the radical social implications of Jesus’ teachings usually ignored by Christianity. Forest converted to Eastern Orthodoxy in the ‘80s and founded the Orthodox Peace Fellowship, an international group seeking to apply their faith’s deepest principles to resolving division and conflict between individuals and among societies and nations.
A memorial for Forest scheduled for Feb. 19 at Saints Cyril & Methodious Orthodox Church, 2515 S. 30th St., was cancelled when the church’s furnace failed. It has been rescheduled at the same location for 4:30 p.m., Saturday March 5.
